Super Strong Super Simple is a Vanishing Inc. production featuring Ryan Schlutz. It is a fantastic compilation of 16 very easy and impressive tricks. For $30 this DVD is a great purchase for any beginner and even higher level card slingers who want some easy and amazing routines.
As stated above, the DVD consists of 16 tricks. Most of them are fantastic. Interestingly, the DVD case mistakenly indicated that there are 13 tricks (not 16). On this 3 hour DVD, Schlutz performs each trick to spectators at a high table in studio and then explains the how-to. The presentations are clear and very good as is the explanatory section of each trick. At the end of the tricks section on the DVD there is a “Moves” section that teaches some very basic card moves such as the pinky break, swing cut and magician’s choice.
The production quality is excellent and the title menu of card tricks indicates what tricks should be performed together by grouping 3 tricks. That suggestion should be very helpful to beginners.
Below is a very brief run through of the tricks:
- 1. Forget to Remember. A Schlutz original. A beauty that really kills, but requires an advance set-up with the deck and the card box. You cannot set-up on the fly.
- 2. Dai Vernon’s Emotional Reaction. It is a classic killer that fools everyone! Can be done with borrowed and shuffled deck.
- 3. Schlutz’s performs Out Of This World using various moves and pieces from numerous magicians and this version can be done with a borrowed and shuffled deck. Very practical, very awesome.
- 4. Pulse Detection by Schlutz borrowing heavily (almost entirely) from Emotional Reaction. Schlutz presents his own revelation of the chosen card. There is nothing really new in this trick that it warrants its own title. It really is Emotional Reaction with a different reveal.
- 5. Prior Commitment by Simon Aronson is a fantastic trick. It fooled Penn & Teller. This tricks requires a set up in advance and 2 previously marked cards. This trick really cannot be done on the fly. The result is inexplicable magic.
6. Bath Towel Mentalism by So Sato is a total killer. Slight set up that you can do on the fly with a bit of misdirection.
7. It Cuts Deep by Schlutz. This is a great trick. You can perform it with a borrowed shuffled deck using a few basic magic principles.
8. All Expenses Paid by Jim Krenz is a good cards across routine that requires some gaff cards and a minor set-up. It is fun to perform.
9. The Upside Down Deck by Francis Carlyle is a trick that I first learned from Scarne on Card Tricks. Like Schlutz, I have been doing this since I was a kid. This is a classic and I still perform this with a borrowed and shuffled deck.
10. The Absent Player by Dani Daortiz. It is the only poker trick on the DVD. It is a chaotic and fooling way to shuffle and deal and end up with a royal flush.
11. Gemini Location by Liam Monitier – it is a strong variation of the Fulves classic.
12. Poker Players Picnic Redux is a fun trick to perform for a group of people. Schlutz presents this trick as a bar bet. It is presented as a way to pick the “high card”.
13. 4 Sided Gemini by John Bannon. It is an easy trick and a total mind blower. Amazing times a billion.
14. Simon Aronson’s Shuffled-Bored. The King of all classic card tricks in my opinion. It is modernized with the addition of text messaging.
15. Silent Transmission is an Eddie Fields gem. The magician is in the next room on a cell phone and is able to divine a selected card.
16. Six Covers Six is another Schlutz trick with a gaffed card. It is a good trick.
Vanishing Inc. and Schlutz did a fantastic job putting together a compilation of easy and awesome card tricks. For the genre, this is one of the best out there and for that this project gets a 10 out of 10 rating!
This excellent DVD can be purchased at any Murphy’s Magic dealer.